Ballet star wins top scholarship Young ballet star Megan Payne has won a scholarship to a prestigious dance school in London. From the Evening Advertiser (Swindon)

The 12-year-old dancer, who attends Wootton Bassett School, has been awarded her course fees for classes at the Arts Educational School in London, which she attends every month.

Megan has to audition every year to keep her place at the school and beat off 250 other children from around the country to win the honour.

"I feel quite pleased but I am not really sure why they picked me.

"I love dancing, it makes me happy," she said.

Megan also has weekly lessons at the Cockram School of Dancing, held in St Bartholomew's Church hall in Wootton Bassett, where children aged from three to 18 learn ballet, tap, modern and national dance.

Barbara's girls are six of ballet dancing's best THERE are some days when opening the post is a bit of a heart-stopper. By Val Javin for The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Barbara Peters discovered that when the letters arrived confirming what she'd always known - that she's currently got in her dance school perhaps the most special group of young dancers she's had in 40 years.

Coming from a teacher of the standing of Barbara Peters, that's saying something. And she doesn't say it lightly. But when she explains just what this group has done, you begin to understand why she's smiling with quiet pride.

It's a long way from joining ballet classes as a tot to standing on the brink of a potential career as a professional. It takes talent, yes. And ballet of all dance forms is the most exacting, the most precise. But perhaps even more than that, it takes unswerving hard work and dedication.

Who doesn’t want to dance? The September 2002 issue of Dancng Times featured the Chance to Dance graduation in the Linbury Theatre. The children who took part had had the chance to dance through a Royal Ballet’s scholarship for up to five years. Read, how it all starts…...from Dancing Times. By Lydia Polzer

Cobourg School off the Old Kent Road on this sunny day is very much like many primary schools in South London. Children are running around in the playground and up and down staircases with bright pink walls. Large windows let the sun into classrooms and colourful corridors. The staff room, too, is brightly painted and on the wall today’s schedule announces a special event. The Royal

Ballet Education Department will give a special dance workshop for 3rd years. It is hard to estimate, but there’ll be a lot of little girls out there who are dreaming about being a great ballerina. Some boys, too, would love to be stars on dance stages even though they are less likely to admit it, of course. And how could anyone not admire the grace of ballet dancers and their beautiful movements.

HIGH FEES COULD COST BALLET BOY HIS DREAM From Evening Telegraph (Derbyshire)

Ballet dancer Elliot Hawker was thrilled when he learned that he had been accepted into one of the country's top dance schools. But the 12-year-old's excitement soon turned to dismay when he realised that his dreams of attending could be dashed unless he can raise enough money to pay his £4,000-a-term tuition fees.

Elliot, of Oregon Way, Chaddesden, passed an audition in January to train at Elmhurst School for Dance and Performing Arts, in Surrey, for three years.

The talented youngster has won a string of awards for dancing and performed last year with the English Youth Ballet.

Sale of building out of step with dance studio A BALLET school which has been a feature of Ledbury life since the 1930s is facing an uncertain future, because the building in which it meets is to be put up for sale. From This Is Ledbury.

The Elizabeth Baker Dance Studio is based at the St John Ambulance building, off the Southend.

Up to 50 local youngsters each week receive expert tuition from Mrs Elizabeth Lunn, who trained at the Sadlers Wells Ballet School.

Now Mrs Lunn, who attended master classes taken by Dame Margot Fonteyn, has been told that, because there is no longer a St John Ambulance group in Ledbury, the building will be put on the market at the end of July.

The art of dancing, which has already been given a shot in its gracefully extended arm by the film exploits of Billy Elliot, received another boost yesterday when the government promised to set up a national agency to rescue dance classes from their "Barbie Doll" reputation. The £3m package for music and dance announced by the education secretary, Charles Clarke, will make sure that hip-hop and street dance are promoted alongside jazz, tap and ballet.

Although dancing is a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum it is rarely taught by specialists and lags far behind music in popularity.

The new youth dance agency, not yet formally titled, will have an annual budget of £100,000 to help it compete over the next three years.

DANCING ON TO THE GREATEST STAGE... By FELICITY DEVONSHIRE for The Evening Herald (Plymouth)

Tip-top tap dancers and budding ballerinas from a Plymouth dance school must keep on their toes if they want to reach the finals of the All England Dance Competition. But, after sweeping all before them at the South West of England Dance Festival, Jurek Sroka - principal of the Jurek Sroka School of Dance - has no doubts that his pupils can sail through.

The school in Mannamead has a reputation as one of the best in the country, and has won the national competition many times over the years.

Talented Charlotte Sellers is dancing her way to stardom after winning a prestigious scholarship worth £70,000. The 11-year-old from Willerby has been selected by Elmhurst School for Dance and Performing Arts, after she impressed judges in two gruelling auditions.

Even though the young would-be star faced stiff competition from hundreds of applicants worldwide, she managed to claim one of just 10 places offered each year.

Charlotte, of Ashdene Close, Willerby, has been learning dance at the Skelton Hooper School of Dance and Theatre, off Princes Avenue, west Hull, since the age of three, and has been practising hard for the chance to dance at the elite school in Surrey.

Chorley's answer to Billy Elliot By Sarah Jackson for This is Chorley (such an exciting title!)

BALLET BOY Matthew Wood is to appear in the youth ballet's version of Sleeping Beauty CHORLEY'S very own Billy Elliot has hit back at playground critics by landing a part in a prestigious English Youth Ballet production.

Matthew Wood, aged nine, from Millwood Glade, Chorley, has been a pupil of Anita Murray's School of Dance for around four-and-a-half years and was overjoyed to be chosen to appear in the youth ballet's version of Sleeping Beauty.

A dance administration friend advises taking this story with a pinch of salt:

Ballet students must learn IT skills By Senay Boztas for The Sunday Times

SCOTLAND’S only ballet school, whose patron is Billy Connolly, has been told that it is to get government funding for the first time — but only if its dancers can prove that they can read, count and work a computer.

To qualify for cash from the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (FEFC), Ballet West has to offer its students courses in basic numeracy, literacy and IT skills.

Graduates from the school, based in Taynuilt, Argyllshire, have gone on to work for some of Britain’s top dance companies, including the English National Ballet, Scottish Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet.

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